Small MPU – Page 1446
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Reviews
Champion
Dir: Kwak Kyung-taek. Korea. 2002. 117minsLike its hero, Kim Deuk-gu, who tried to become Korea's first boxing world supremo, Champion gives a very worthy account of itself, but ultimately fails to deliver a knock-out punch. With sumptuous looks and a determinedly physical central performance by Friend star Yoo Oh-sun, the ...
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News
Ster Century divests Polish and Greek cinema circuits
Ster Century Europe has sold its Polish and Greek cinema operations for a combined Euros 30.6m.The company's four-multiplex Polish circuit, which includes three sites and 37 screens in Warsaw and one site in Wroclaw with 9 screens, has been sold to IT International Cinemas for Euros19.8m.A major multiplex operator in ...
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News
France's Bac Majestic reveals the identity of its 'white knight'
French distribution group Bac Majestic has revealed the name of its 'white knight': Belgian entrepreneur Michel Litwak and his company Fragum III, who will help turn around the beleaguered company. Bac, which issued a profit warning in May, was seeking a $12.3m (Euros13m) lifeline in order to survive. The lifeline ...
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News
Deepa Mehta plans $10m English-language historical drama
Toronto-based Indian filmmaker Deepa Mehta (pictured) is planning to make a $10m English-language feature about the 1914 epic journey by Punjabi immigrants from India to Canada and back on a ship named the Komagata Maru. The film is based on the historical incident of the steamship Komagata Maru that sailed ...
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News
Edinburgh unveils impressive festival line-up
The 56th Edinburgh International Film Festival (August 14 - 25) will open with the UK premiere of Lynne Ramsey's acclaimed Morvern Callar and close with Christopher Nolan's hit thriller Insomnia.Gala screenings joining previously the announced titles: Tadpole, The Guru, Rabbit Proof Fence, 8 Femmes and Changing Lanes include Mark ...
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News
Alternative offerings lead to dampened Spirit
As 20th Century Fox's Minority Report stormed to the top of the UK box office with an impressive opening weekend take of $5.9m (£3.9m) - see separate story - the week's other major opener, UIP's Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron, saw a disappointing performance.The animated film claimed third place in ...
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News
Edinburgh unveils full festival line-up
The 56th Edinburgh International Film Festival (August 14 - 25) will open with the UK premiere of Lynne Ramsay's acclaimed Morvern Callar and close with Christopher Nolan's hit thriller Insomnia.Gala screenings joining previously the announced titles: Tadpole, The Guru, Rabbit Proof Fence, 8 Femmes and Changing Lanes include Mark ...
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News
Latvia joins Poland in EU's MEDIA Plus programme
Following hot on the heels of Poland, Latvia is now the second of the East European countries to become a member of the European Union's (EU) MEDIA Plus Programme.Latvia's Ambassador to the EU signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enable Latvian professionals to participate in the audiovisual programme.Preparations had already ...
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News
Spain's Admira offloads Argentinian Azul TV
Spanish media house Admira and JP Morgan have finalised the long-mooted sale of Argentina's Azul TV to Argentine consortium HFS Media SA.The sale was prompted by an Argentine regulation which prohibits a single company from owning more than one television channel locally. Admira, the media arm of Spanish telecoms giant ...
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News
Hong Kong's Filmko sells Inner Senses to Horizon for Europe
Hong Kong production outfit Filmko Pictures has sold European rights to supernatural thriller Inner Senses to Vancouver-based sales company Horizon Entertainment.Horizon has several years experience handling Asian films in the European and North American markets. Its slate includes the celebrated Ring series, produced by Japan's Asmik Ace, one of its ...
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News
Halcyon hooks Weisz, Denneen for thriller projects
Los Angeles-based independent production outfit Halcyon Entertainment has attached two hot music video and commercials directors to two films in active development. Halcyon was created in Los Angeles by British producer Chris Coen in 1999.Martin Weisz will direct The Sett, a thriller based on the novel by Ranulph Fiennes and ...
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News
Brandon Fowler sets up Transdermal Entertainment
Independent Los Angeles producer Brandon Fowler has set up Transdermal Entertainment, a financing and production company focused on films with "mid-range" budgets.The company is has two projects in development: Reverie, a drama about two young men making a documentary about the homeless and how it changes their lives forever, and ...
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News
Ethan Hawke & Fisher Stevens among new director Gotham nominees
Six film-makers have been nominated for the Open Palm Award for outstanding directorial debut at this year's Gotham Awards which will be presented in New York City on Sept 29. The awards, presented by IFP/New York, celebrate outstanding achievement in New York's film-making community.Nominees for the $10,000 award are Bertha ...
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News
Men In Black II takes $11.7m in first five international territories
In its first international roll-out weekend Columbia's Men in Black II scored a combined gross of $11.7m from Australia, Japan, Russia, New Zealand and Columbia, averaging $10,400 from 1,129 screens. In Japan MIBII took $5.3m - coincidentally the same amount Men in Black grossed when the original came out in ...
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News
Li Ka Shing makes play for HK TV group
Tom.com, a Hong Kong multimedia company owned by the territory's richest tycoon, Li Ka-shing, is buying a 32.75% stake in local free-to-air broadcaster Asia Television (ATV).The move marks Li's first foray into TV broadcasting and forms part of Tom.com's diversification strategy. The company was listed as an internet portal in ...
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News
Vivendi subject to accounting probe as it secures Euros 1bn loan
Vivendi Universal confirmed today (July 10) that it has obtained a Euros 1bn unsecured credit line from a group of international banks. But there are more problems for the group as the stockmarket opened a preliminary investigation into its accounting practices.The widely expected credit move is likely to be followed ...
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Reviews
Nowhere In Africa (Nirgendwo In Afrika)
Dir. Caroline Link. Germany. 2001. 134mins.A sprawling epic about a Jewish family sheltering in Africa just before World War Two, Nowhere In Africa is a natural crowd pleaser that has already stormed to success in Germany. Adapted from Stefanie Zweig's best-selling autobiography, the film, which is now playing on 224 ...
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News
New Line taps UK's Stevenson for Double Au Pair duties
British writer/actress Jessica Stevenson, who co-created, co-wrote and co-starred in hit TV series Spaced, has landed a deal with New Line Cinema to write and star in Double Au Pair, a family adventure comedy about a nanny spy. Stevenson, who also starred in comedy Tomorrow La Scala! which played in ...
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News
Korean films take 46% local market share in first half of 2002
Korean films leapt 7.8% to take a 46.1% share of the Seoul market with 44 films released during the first half of 2002, according to figures published by the Korean Film Commission. The hefty 7.8% increase over the same period in 2001, bodes well for the full-year tally ending up ...